I. The Old Wine Measures

It has been seen that a cubic foot of water is very approximately = 1000 Roman ounces = 62-1/2 lb. of water at the early averdepois standard. There is reason to believe that this cubic foot was our original wine-unit, the wine-bushel, 1/8 of it = 216 cubic inches, being the wine-gallon; and that the cubic foot, increased in water-wheat ratio 1728 × 1·25 = 2160 c.i., was the corn-bushel. The corn-gallon, 2160/8 = 270 c.i., remained at this standard for centuries, 268·8 c.i. being the London measure, and 272-1/4 c.i. the Winchester measure, the slight differences being due to difficulties in casting and gauging shallow metal pans.

That the wine-gallon was originally 1/8 cubic foot is rendered very probable by the existence in Ireland of a gallon of almost exactly that capacity. This gallon was legalised for ale, beer and spirits by George II (1735) at a capacity of 217·6 c.i.

The rise of the wine-gallon in England to 219 c.i., to 224 c.i., and finally to 231 c.i. under Henry VIII, seems due to two influences:

1. The desire to make it hold 8 lb. of wine = about 222 c.i., that weight being mentioned in statute.

2. The influence of wine-measures used at the ports whence wine came.

The principal unit of wine-measure at Bordeaux, and some other continental ports, was the Velte, the equivalent of the German viertel which was 1/4 Rhineland cubic foot = 471·6 c.i. So our gallon tended to increase towards the measure of 235·8 c.i., the half-velte. It could not increase further than 231 c.i. without deranging its water-wheat ratio with the corn-gallon, already increased, temporarily at least, under Henry VIII to 282 c.i. But the principal reason for 231 c.i. was that this was the capacity of a cylinder 7 inches in diameter and 6 inches deep. It has always been desirable that market-measures should be of dimensions easily remembered and readily gauged with a foot-rule. The wine-gallon of 231 c.i., confirmed by the new measures made by Elizabeth’s order, was afterwards known as Queen Anne’s gallon. It is to this day the fluid gallon of the United States, Canada and Ceylon.

The half-velte was the French galon, a word connected with galloie, jallaie, jalle, jarre, with our ‘jar’ and with ‘gauge,’ Fr. jauge. It may be mentioned that ‘velte’ sometimes meant a gauging-rod for wine-casks.

The wine-gallon was divided into 2 pots, or 4 quarts or 8 pints. The wine-pint = 16·57 fluid ounces = 5/6 Imperial pint.

By 2 Henry VI (1423)—

Thus the hogshead (Flemish okshoofd, ox-head) was approximately 1/4 of the tun or fluid ton.

The customary beer-barrel contained, and still contains, 36 gallons (now Imperial gallons). It is probable that it was originally a half-hogshead = 31-1/2 or 32 gallons, and that it rose as an indirect consequence of the statutory rise of the Cwt. and Ton. (This will be explained under Corn Measure.)

The half-barrel of 18 gallons was called a Kilderkin, from the old Flemish word kinderkin, a little child. To it corresponded the Runlet of 18-1/2 wine-gallons (1483), the German Eimer or double Anker.

The quarter-barrel of 9 gallons is a Firkin, a word in which vierde, a fourth, replaces kinder; so that in the fifteenth century it was a Ferdekyn.

But the ale-barrel remained nominally at 32 gallons, its kilderkin at 16, its firkin at 8 gallons. This counterbalanced the increase of the ale-gallon to 282 c.i. How did this rise come about? The probable explanation is that the ale-gallon was really a corn-gallon of Henry VII and VIII; it disappeared for corn, but it remained for ale.

Henry III proclaimed on his accession that, according to Magna Charta, there should be but one standard of measure and of weight throughout the realm, one measure of wine, one measure of ale, and one measure of corn.

There seems to be no information extant about the second of these measures; it was presumably the same as the corn-gallon. A statute of Henry VIII ordered the barrel of beer to be 36 gallons and that of ale 32 gallons, whence it may be presumed that the former were wine-gallons and the latter corn-gallons, 32 and 36 being taken as the whole numbers nearly proportionate to wine and corn measure, and admitting of the quarter-barrel being 8 gallons of ale and 9 of beer.^[26]

In 1496 (temp. Henry VII) a new corn-bushel was made = 2240 c.i., its gallon being 280 c.i. While it is possible that this increase was due to inaccurate casting, yet it might be that the new corn-gallon was intended to be on a water-wheat ratio with the wine-gallon, then = 224 c.i. (224 × 1-1/4 = 280), in the same way that the usual corn-gallon of 270 c.i. was in that ratio to the original 1/8 cubic foot gallon of 216 c.i. (216 × 1-1/4 = 270).^[27]

In 1531 the corn-gallon was increased to 282 c.i. But under Elizabeth the corn-gallon was restored to its old standard of 1/8 bushel = 2150·4/8 c.i. = 268·8 c.i. and the wine-gallon fixed at 231 c.i. At these standards both gallons stood until their unification in 1824. Confirmed by Queen Anne, they are known by her name.

But the corn-gallon of Henry VIII, = 282 c.i., remained as the Ale-gallon, probably because it had become the standard measure for malt.

The Quart and Pint

While the wine-pint was an eighth of a wine-gallon the common pint of England was the Ale-pint, an eighth of the Tudor Ale-gallon, which was 280 or 282 cubic inches and differed little from the Imperial gallon = 277·27 cubic inches. So the pint of ale in Tudor times differed little from an Imperial pint.

The Quart and Pint of Elizabeth preserved at the Standards Office are larger than Imperial measure, the Quart holding 40·53 ounces as compared with the 40 ounces of the Imperial quart; it is one-fourth of a gallon of 280 cubic inches, the Tudor ale-gallon.

3. Corn Measure

It has been seen that Henry III’s statute defined the gallon as containing 8 lb. of wine, and Edward I’s as containing 8 lb. of wheat. It is probable that the Magna Charta principle of ‘one weight, one measure’ prevented the mention of two different gallons, as it prevented the mention of two different pounds. But we know that there were two gallons. In England as in ancient Greece the unit of corn-measure was the fluid measure of the Talent increased in water-wheat ratio; so our cubic foot, taken as a wine-bushel of 8 wine-gallons, and increased one-fourth, gave the corn-bushel of 8 corn-gallons.

of which 1/8 = 270 c.i. was the corn-gallon.

It has been seen that the wine-gallon increased to 231 c.i., but the corn-standard remained for centuries (excepting a vagary temp. Henry VII and VIII) at very nearly its original value. It must be remembered how difficult it must have been to cast accurately a shallow brass pan 18-1/2 inches in diameter and only 8 inches deep; and this is probably the cause of the slight difference between the two standards of corn-measure, the London bushel and the Winchester bushel. These were simply variants, inevitable in making standard measures of the calculated capacity of the bushel = 2160 cubic inches = 1-1/4 cubic feet.

The London bushel = 2150·42 c.i.; the gallon = 268·8 c.i.

The Winchester bushel = 2178 c.i.; the gallon = 272-1/4 c.i.

The latter standard was so called, it is said, because its standard had been kept at Winchester since the time of King Edgar; it was, by 22 Chas. II (1670) and 10 Geo. III (1769), the standard measure for corn and other dry goods.

But by 13 Wm. III (1702) and by 5 Anne (1707) the London bushel was the standard, and this is the present corn-bushel of the United States. It is, however, commonly called, but inaccurately, a Winchester bushel.

4. The Quarter and the Chaldron

When the Cwt. was raised to 112 lb. and the Ton to 2240 lb. the Chaldron or ton-measure of wheat was increased by statute from 4 × 8 = 32 bushels to 36 bushels. One would think it would follow that the Quarter would be raised from 8 to 9 bushels. No, it was not raised, by law at least; so the corn-trade raised it themselves, thinking that evidently if a chaldron is now 36 bushels, for the quarter of it we must ask or give 9 bushels.

But this practice was apparently held to be an offence against the repeated royal declarations beginning with the 32 wheat-corn weight of the penny and ending with the ‘bushel which is the eighth part of the Quarter.’ While one statute raised the Chaldron to 36 bushels, another declared that its quarter was to remain at 8 bushels. In 15 Rich. II (1391) it is declared that ‘8 bushels striked should make the Quarter of corn nevertheless that divers people will not buy but 9 bushels for the Quarter.’

As statutes of 1436 and 1496 repeated this prohibition of any increase of the quarter one may presume that the forbidden practice continued, the increased quarter being called a Vat. But there was another way of evading these statutes; the old story with bad legislation; Fatta la lege, trovato l’inganno. It became in many parts customary to give, not a long-quarter, but a long-bushel of 9 gallons, so that 8 long-bushels would make the new quarter-chaldron. It was possibly a relic of this practice which caused the Chester corn-measure to become 70 lb., roughly 62-1/2 lb. × 9/8 = 70·3 lb. Cheshire perhaps benefited by its neighbourhood to Lancashire, which was specially exempted by 13 Rich. II from the penalties for offences against the unity of weights and measures, ‘because in that county it hath always been used to have greater measure than in any other part of the realm.’^[28] Yet long-bushels are sometimes the striked equivalents of heaped measure.

But in most parts of the country the attempts to correct stupid legislation were abandoned, and so the Chaldron of 36 bushels fell almost out of use and the Quarter ceased to be a quarter of any measure. In 1707 Bishop Fleetwood (‘Chronicon preciosum’) could only say ‘doubtless a Quarter is a quarter or fourth part of some load or weight.’ And there is a story that Lord Kelvin, asking the head of the Standards Office (giving evidence before a Royal Commission on Weights and Measures) of what a Quarter was the quarter, failed to obtain any light on the subject. And he himself did not know.

But since the corn-trade brought back from North America the old ton of 20 centals, the quarter has found its long-lost father. The freight-ton of ships, 40 cubic feet of cargo, contains 32 bushels (at 1-1/4 cubic feet to the bushel), that is 4 Quarters or 2000 lb. of average wheat = 20 centals.

5. Coal Measure

The Chaldron of 36 bushels is used for the sale of coke and in Northumberland for coal.

A ‘keel’ of coal, i.e. the load of the Tyneside lighter known as a ‘keel,’ was, up till the fifteenth century, 20 ‘chaldres,’ the measure of 20 old tons:

When the old Chaldron became illegal it gradually gave place to the new ton and to the new chaldron. The Newcastle chaldron was 2 statute chaldrons = 72 bushels. The modern keel of coal is 21·2 tons = 16 statute chaldrons of 36 bushels = 8 Newcastle chaldrons. This double chaldron is then 72 bushels, or, as 1/8 of the keel, = 21·2 tons, it is 53 cwt., and it is divided into 3 Fother of 17-2/3 cwt. = 1966 lb. or nearly the old ton of 2000 lb. Thus the Newcastle fother is nearly the old ton, and the keel of 24 fothers or old tons has taken the place of the sixteenth-century keel of 20 old tons.

In the eighteenth century the coal-bushel was slightly changed from London or Winchester standard. 12 Anne (1714) ordered a special coal-bushel. It was defined as containing a Winchester bushel and a quart, 33 instead of 32 quarts = 2218 cubic inches, and coal was to be sold by the chalder of 36 such bushels, heaped.

This new bushel was 1/8 inch more in diameter and in depth than the old standard; it arose probably from a faulty casting. It is remarkable, inasmuch as its capacity is almost exactly that of the Edinburgh firlot and also of the Imperial bushel instituted a century later.

The Chaldron survives for coke. When coal is coked at the gas-works it swells, so that a ton of coal, = about 3/4 chaldron, yields about a chaldron of coke.

Heaped Measure

It has been seen that in 1392 the bushel was to be measured ‘striked’ and not heaped. Yet the love of extra weight or measure is so ingrained in human nature that it persisted, at least in retail transactions. With a pan-shaped bushel more than twice as broad as deep, heaping increased the measure by not less than one-fourth. With a drum-shaped bushel, its depth equal to its diameter, the increase of heaped over striked measure would be about an eighth, so that a bushel of wheat would weigh about 70 lb. instead of 62 lb. Heaped measure was made illegal in 1835.

It is possible that some long-bushels (as that of Chester = 70 lb.) were originally, or actually, heaped bushels.

6. The Imperial Gallon

In 1824 some of our measures were reorganised, and among the changes was the unification of wine and corn measure. The better concordance of capacity with weight by a single gallon containing exactly 10 lb. of water at ordinary temperature has been a great advantage. It has enlarged the decimal capabilities of our system without impairing its convenient and popular series of capacity units. It is indeed an advantage that the slight increase of the corn-gallon now gives a weight of 64 lb. good wheat to the bushel, so that the pint corresponds very exactly to a pound of wheat.

Yet it must be remembered that our brethren of the United States, not usually deemed unprogressive, get on very well with Queen Anne’s wine-gallon and corn-gallon.

The new gallon holds exactly 10 lb. of pure water at 62° or 277·274 cubic inches.

The bushel is of the capacity of 2218·19 cubic inches. It holds 80 lb. of pure water.

The change from the old corn-gallon was very slight, increasing it by only 3 per cent., from 268·8 to 277·27 c.i. (and rather less from the Winchester gallon of 270 c.i.), so that the bushel formerly holding 62-1/2 lb. of wheat now holds 64 lb.

Wine-measure was increased by almost exactly 20 per cent., from 231 c.i. to 277·27 c.i., so that a gallon of wine is contained in 6 customary bottles, instead of 5 as formerly, or as at present in the United States.

Bushel measures are of two shapes: the drum-shape, 15 inches diameter by 12-2/4 inches deep, and the standard shape (that of the old corn-measure), 18-1/2 inches diameter by 8-1/4 inches deep.

Nothing has been changed in the excellent octonary series of measures, pint, gallon, bushel, quarter (eight of the first making one of the second and so on), with binary sub-units—some of them general, as the quart; others local, as the coomb; and some more or less obsolete, as the tuffet, famous in nursery rhyme.

These measures can be used for either dry goods or fluids. The smaller measures below a pint are used for fluids.

Fluid Measures

The institution of the Imperial gallon, while increasing corn-measure by 3 per cent., had less effect on Ale-measure. The Ale-pint, being 1/8 of the Ale-gallon of 282 cubic inches, was somewhat larger than the new Imperial pint, holding about 20-1/4 ounces; so the change to the Imperial pint of 20 ounces was practically imperceptible.

The Gill is officially, according to southern custom, a 1/4 pint; but in Lancashire and the north it is a half-pint. The name Gill, like the Jug synonym for Pint, is part of a popular series of names for beer or spirit measures. Jug is the feminine of Jack, with which name Gill is familiarly associated.

The customary capacity of wine-bottles is 1/6 gallon = 26-2/3 ounces. So six customary bottles go to the gallon, and a customary ‘dozen’ of wine or spirits = 2 gallons.

In India the gallon of canteen-spirit, rum or arrack, is reckoned as 48 drams, each 1/8 bottle or 3-1/3 fluid ounces.

7. Medicinal Fluid Measures

The Imperial gallon, as 10 lb. of water = 160 fluid ounces, each of 437-1/2 grains of water at standard temperature.

Its eighth part, the Pint, contains 20 ounces weight or 20 fluid-ounces measure. It is so divided on druggists’ glass measures. The fluid ounce is divided into 8 fluid drachms, each of 60 minims, approximately fluid grains.

In the United States, where the old wine-gallon of 231 cubic inches is retained, the old wine-pint of 16 fluid ounces is used. 231 c.i. × 252·458 (grains of water in 1 c.i.) gives—

The fluid ounce is divided as in England into 8 fluid drachms, of 60 minims.